Three Rings Announces Bang! Howdy

Award Winning Independent Developer Three Rings Rides into Town to Announce New
Game

San Francisco – August 1, 2005 – Three Rings, developers of Puzzle Pirates,
announced today the active development of Bang! Howdy (TM), a multiplayer online
tactical strategy game for the PC. Players face off in the steam-powered Wild
West, using traditional strategy game mechanics in a variety of gameplay modes
like Claim Jumping, Cattle Herding and Steam Mustang Hockey!

Introducing a hybrid between turn-based and realtime strategy gameplay, Bang!
Howdy is played in short fast-paced rounds. The players use winnings earned as
they play, along with a micro-currency system, to purchase and customize
persistent Big Shot units, which influence their play-style and strategies in
future games. As the player progresses through five unique Wild West settings,
new units, gameplay scenarios, arenas, customizations and game features are
introduced.

"We’re happier than a coyote in the chuckwagon to let y’all know what we’ve been
working on back at the ranch," said Michael Bayne, project lead for Bang! and
Three Rings’ CTO. "We think strategy fans will appreciate our fresh perspective
on the genre and plumb everybody will enjoy our fun and accessible Wild West
antics."

Bang! Howdy will be distributed online and free to play, with optional purchase
of micro-currency to obtain upgrades and additional content.

"The ‘free to play, pay for items’ business model has proven very successful in
the Korean market with games like Kart Rider, and is already offered as an
alternative to subscription for Puzzle Pirates players on ‘Doubloon’ servers,"
adds Daniel James, Three Rings’ CEO.

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